


Birds on the Brain

by BunniesofDoom



Category: RWBY
Genre: Beacon Academy, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Pre-Canon, Pre-Volume 1 (RWBY), Team STRQ Era (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29028006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunniesofDoom/pseuds/BunniesofDoom
Summary: "Today, we're going to teach you the way to spot the differences between a crow and a raven."
Relationships: Qrow Branwen & Raven Branwen & Summer Rose & Taiyang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose & Yang Xiao Long
Kudos: 42





	Birds on the Brain

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a post that I saw on tumblr about how to tell the difference between a crow and a raven that immediately made me think of team STRQ (link in my fanfiction.net profile-I have the same username on both sites). Enjoy!

"Hello!" The camera pans out to reveal a younger-looking Summer Rose, standing in one of the dorm rooms at Beacon Academy and smiling mischievously. "Today, we're going to teach you the way to spot the differences between a crow and a raven, since someone keeps mixing them up."

"Hey!" a voice protest loudly from out of view.

Summer ignores the voice, setting the camera down behind her and taking a step back. "Are our feathered friends ready to make their debut, Tai?"

The blonde man steps into view, nodding. "They should be. They've informed me that they're not thrilled about this, but they're willing to play along for now."

"Good." She walks over to the pair of birds perched on the desk. "Now, as you can see here, on my left, we have a raven, and on my right, that's a crow. Any questions so far?"

"So far, so good," Tai assures her.

"Excellent. Now, one of the first differences I'm going to point out, to help you tell the birds, is the difference in the feathers around their throat. If you look at the neck of a raven, you'll notice that these birds have longer feathers around their throats, almost as if they're trying to be fancy." The raven glares at Summer, who ignores the bird's antics in favor of turning to the other bird. "But if you look at a crow, you'll notice that the feathers around the neck are smooth and normal-looking."

"Sounds easy enough."

"So that's the first, and maybe the simplest, way to tell these birds apart. Next, we'll take a look at their tails." Summer gestures for the birds to turn around. "If you look at a raven, you'll notice that they have more of a wedge-shaped tail, while if you look at a crow, you'll find that they have more of a fan-shaped tail."

Tai frowns. "I think I understand that one, but it's definitely a bit trickier than the first. I'll definitely have to practice it a bit more than the first method."

"I agree that it's a bit more difficult than telling them apart by the throat feathers, but it's useful to know in case you only manage to glimpse the bird from the back."

"Fair enough. Carry on, then, Summer."

"Thank you." Summer turns back to the birds. "Next, we'll go by the noises that they make. Speak," she instructs the raven, who croaks in response, before returning to preening its feathers. "As you just heard, the typical sound that a raven makes is a raspy-sounding croak. Crows, on the other hand, have more of a proper caw. Speak," she says again, and this time the crow responds, cawing a couple times before falling silent again.

"So, if it caws, it's a crow, and if it croaks like it's been chain-smoking for twenty years it's a raven. Got it." The raven shoots him a glare.

Summer giggles. "Basically. Our last way to tell them apart has to do with the way they fly. She gestures for the birds to take off, and they both do, spreading their wings and flying a lap around the room. "Ravens are incredibly coordinated and can perform tricks like a simple barrel roll." Summer claps her hands and one of the birds veers towards her, rolling effortlessly in mid-air before righting itself and swooping down to land on her shoulder. Summer winces faintly as the raven's feet dig into her shoulder, but quickly recovers with a smile and continues. "Crows, on the other hand, are not quite as good of fliers as ravens are, and so will mostly avoid any fancy maneuvers in favor of just flying normally."

When she gestures at the crow, it flies towards her, attempting the same barrel roll trick as the raven, but it quickly loses its balance, spiraling out of the quick turn to right itself. "And that's it for our lesson today. Four ways to tell apart a crow and a raven."

"So, if it's flying around doing circus tricks it's a raven, and if it just flies around normally it's a crow?"

"You've got it!" Summer praises him. "Now if you can just make sure to have this all memorized before our next mission, I have a feeling that things will go a lot more smoothly this time."

"Okay, okay," Tai says. "So, if it's a raven, it'll have long throat feathers, a wedge-shaped tail, it'll communicate by croaking, and it'll be a fancy flier. But if it's a crow, it'll have smooth feathers around its neck, a fan-shaped tail, it'll caw, and it'll just fly normally."

"Yep!" Summer beams at him.

"Thanks, Sum."

"Oh, please, it was nothing. If you want to thank anyone, thank these two for being so patient and putting up with all this," Summer replies, gesturing to the two birds.

The video abruptly ends, leaving Ruby and Yang staring at a blank screen.

"That was weird," Yang breaks the silence, frowning at the TV. "I wonder why mom and dad were so obsessed with those birds?"

Beside her, Ruby shrugs. "Who knows? Dad did say that team STRQ got into all sorts of crazy stuff when they were at Beacon. I guess that this is what he meant." She pauses for a moment, looking thoughtful. "I'm just wondering how they managed to get those birds to do all that stuff. I know that dad said that mom was pretty good with animals, but still."

Yang sighs. "Who knows? I guess it'll always be a mystery."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please comment and leave kudos if you liked it.
> 
> Just a reminder that I do take requests for fics, so if there's an idea that you'd like to see me write, feel free to message me and if I like it, I might end up writing something for it.


End file.
